1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to accessories employed in the use of muzzle-loading firearms, preferably rifles and pistols, and more specifically to the nipple wrench, used to loosen and tighten the nipples in the firearm to clean them or replace them with others, and the ramrod used in the operations of loading the firearms.
2. The Prior Art
Wrenches are usually made from a solid bar with one of its ends suitably machined, by milling, to provide two lateral lugs between whose lateral walls is housed the central portion of the nipple. For this purpose, such a nipple comprises bevels with the central portion, another threaded portion to be placed by the thread in an opening of the firearm and a third portion generally truncated conical on its outside in which the cap to be actuated by the hammer is received.
From the effects of continued use it becomes necessary at times to unscrew the nipple from its place in the firearm, both to clean it and to replace it with another, all of which requires continuous use of such a wrench, which results in breaking of the wrench lugs by the force applied and by the fatigue of the material itself.
On the other hand, the axial firing opening of the nipples themselves require frequent cleaning, and this is usually done with accessories for the firearm, for example, with pins or the like.
In this type of firearm there is a pin for achieving the connection between the barrel and the breech, and this pin is equipped on one of its outside ends with a reentrant groove into which the end of a screwdriver is normally applied, striking the pin for its extraction, to disconnect the barrel and breech.